Hindalco chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla at the company’s 64th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Tuesday announced that the firm has planned a total investment of Rs 4,000 crore in an extrusion facility for freight wagons and coaches and a copper and e-waste recycling plant.
The firm’s plans include an investment of Rs 2,000 crore to build a new extrusion facility for producing freight wagons and coaches of Indian Railways’ current sensation, Vande Bharat trains. The remaining Rs 2,000 crore will be used for setting up a copper and e-waste recycling facility in India, Birla said.
Investment plans
The chairman said the firm is “excited” to partner with the Indian Railways and the “passenger coach manufacturing ecosystem for the ambitious high-speed Vande Bharat trains”. He specified that the Rs 2,000 crore investment has been planned for the project and the required technology tie-ups are in place to bring “new extrusion and fabrication technologies to India”.
Calling the copper and e-waste recycling facility a first-of-its-kind in India, Birla said the project is aimed at addressing the issues caused by “e-waste, recognized as the foremost waste stream on a global scale”.
It is reported that Hindalco Industries has successfully introduced India’s inaugural all-aluminium lightweight rake. This innovation allows for increased speed and greater payload capacity. The firm now plans to introduce three more designs of freight wagons in the coming months. It will target specific end-use applications, which will include bagged cement and foodgrains.
In an effort to scale up EV manufacturing in India, Hindalco is working closely with (original equipment manufacturers) OEMs to co-develop and manufacture crucial components like battery enclosures, motor housings, using the company’s facilities, Birla said. He added that the projects for battery foils, coated aluminium fins and aerospace-grade extrusions are also on track, he added.
Birla revealed that the firm’s US-based unit Novelis, recycled 2.3 million tonnes of of aluminium scrap in the financial year 2023 and that at Hindalco, 90% of its waste is utilised across its sites in India. The firm utilised over 100% of fly ash, and the bauxite residue from three of its four alumina refineries, he added.
(With PTI inputs)